He remembered his cousin and his playfellow, the fairest and daintiest girl he had ever seen, his best friend, his constant companion.

He remembered the days when she had first become something more to him, the miseries of that time, his hopeless ineligibility--the separation.

Then the years of absence, the terrible branding years of his life, the horrible pit, the time when night and day his only prayer had been the prayer for death.

The self-repression of years seemed to grow weaker and weaker.

He held out his hands.